Vicki Davis' Coolcat Blog:As a I looked through this blog, I was impressed by the amount of resources and links to professionals that were available. I thought that of the three I looked at, this one was most useful for finding activities, tools, ideas, etc. for specific subjects. I liked how the archives could be searched by given topics such as administration, teachers, students, and more. I believe that if you needed to find and idea or tool for a specific topic, this would be the blog to go to. However, because of all the links to tools, people, twitter feeds, etc., the page was very distracting and the pictures were huge! Lots of ads made it hard to focus on the blog part itself. Despite this, however, you can tell that this blog was written by someone who is still teaching and is trying to provide useful resources for teachers. I believe this blog was the only one out of the three that was not just written to get teachers thinking and conversing (through the comments section) but to really help teachers help their students. David Warlick's 2¢ Worth Blog:
The purpose of this blog was definitely to get teachers thinking and discussing (through the comments section). Like Vicki Davis' blog, there were a lot of ads but these were off to the side and it was a little easier to not be distracted by them while reading the blog. David Warlick is obviously very intelligent and gave a lot of good things to think about for teachers, it is written by someone who is no longer a teacher and did not give any resources or ideas of things to use in a classroom that I could see. I also noticed that most of the posts were about North Carolina, where David lives and works, but education laws in North Carolina do not affect me as much since I am in Missouri so that information is not as useful to me. David's blog does have each post tagged underneath so you can click a particular tag and see all the posts that have the same tag. This is helpful if you want information about a specific topic and if you would like to be involved in a discussion on that topic. All in all, this is probably the blog I would use the least out of the three.
Will Richardson's Blog:
This was the cleanest most uncluttered blog of the three which I really appreciated. Personally, when I want to read something, I don't like a lot of pictures and ads around. Like David's blog, Will's blog is mostly about thoughts he has and is less about resources. Also, like David, Will is no longer a classroom teacher. Unlike Vickie's and David's blogs, it was much easier to find the comments in Will's blog which I find to be one of the best parts of the blog. When a blog is meant to induce thinking and conversation, the conversation part is essential to bring about more thinking. Since this seems to be the main purpose of this blog, I appreciate being able to get to that feature quickly. I also felt that Will is very intelligent and knows what he is talking about and is able to inspire great discussions. This is not a blog I would go to when seeking resources, but when I want to be challenged in what I think about education.
Disclaimer:
I have seen all three of these people give talks and presentations at various education technology conferences and was highly impressed by all of them. They all seem to be on the cutting edge of how technology can be used in education and I loved listening to them. I had not, however, read their blogs before so this was fun to see more about them after the conferences.
Edublogs (Part 1)
Vicki Davis' Coolcat Blog:As a I looked through this blog, I was impressed by the amount of resources and links to professionals that were available. I thought that of the three I looked at, this one was most useful for finding activities, tools, ideas, etc. for specific subjects. I liked how the archives could be searched by given topics such as administration, teachers, students, and more. I believe that if you needed to find and idea or tool for a specific topic, this would be the blog to go to. However, because of all the links to tools, people, twitter feeds, etc., the page was very distracting and the pictures were huge! Lots of ads made it hard to focus on the blog part itself. Despite this, however, you can tell that this blog was written by someone who is still teaching and is trying to provide useful resources for teachers. I believe this blog was the only one out of the three that was not just written to get teachers thinking and conversing (through the comments section) but to really help teachers help their students.
David Warlick's 2¢ Worth Blog:
The purpose of this blog was definitely to get teachers thinking and discussing (through the comments section). Like Vicki Davis' blog, there were a lot of ads but these were off to the side and it was a little easier to not be distracted by them while reading the blog. David Warlick is obviously very intelligent and gave a lot of good things to think about for teachers, it is written by someone who is no longer a teacher and did not give any resources or ideas of things to use in a classroom that I could see. I also noticed that most of the posts were about North Carolina, where David lives and works, but education laws in North Carolina do not affect me as much since I am in Missouri so that information is not as useful to me. David's blog does have each post tagged underneath so you can click a particular tag and see all the posts that have the same tag. This is helpful if you want information about a specific topic and if you would like to be involved in a discussion on that topic. All in all, this is probably the blog I would use the least out of the three.
Will Richardson's Blog:
This was the cleanest most uncluttered blog of the three which I really appreciated. Personally, when I want to read something, I don't like a lot of pictures and ads around. Like David's blog, Will's blog is mostly about thoughts he has and is less about resources. Also, like David, Will is no longer a classroom teacher. Unlike Vickie's and David's blogs, it was much easier to find the comments in Will's blog which I find to be one of the best parts of the blog. When a blog is meant to induce thinking and conversation, the conversation part is essential to bring about more thinking. Since this seems to be the main purpose of this blog, I appreciate being able to get to that feature quickly. I also felt that Will is very intelligent and knows what he is talking about and is able to inspire great discussions. This is not a blog I would go to when seeking resources, but when I want to be challenged in what I think about education.
Disclaimer:
I have seen all three of these people give talks and presentations at various education technology conferences and was highly impressed by all of them. They all seem to be on the cutting edge of how technology can be used in education and I loved listening to them. I had not, however, read their blogs before so this was fun to see more about them after the conferences.
Resources:
Davis, Vicki. "The Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis." Cool Cat Teacher Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.
Warlick, David. "2¢ Worth." 2¢ Worth. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.
Richardson, Will. "Blog - Will Richardson." Blog-Will Richardson. N.p., 2016. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.